How people live in the most remote corners of Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the largest country in the world, not everyone is lucky to be in places where you can easily refuel a car or download a photo from the Internet. For this, someone has to overcome unprecedented difficulties and take desperate steps.

Fourteen hours of horse and tractor riding to pass the exam

Katya Gotovtseva was born and raised in the village of Dygdal in Yakutia, 125 km from the nearest regional center. She could pass the uniform state exam in a foreign language only there. But every spring, due to floods, the road to it is washed away, it simply does not exist. This did not stop Katya, and together with her father they worked out a route.

A high school student had to get from Dygdal to a neighboring village by horse, and from there to the next village by a tractor, after which she had to change to a car.

On May 18, there was the last call at school, everyone was preparing for graduation, and Katya saddled her horse and went to the exam.

Flood in the village of Dygdal - the Main Directorate of the EMERCOM of Russia in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)

“No sooner had we left the village when my Orlik smelled something or got scared of something, he quickly ran at a trot towards the forest, got up on his hind legs and tried to throw me off several times.

Then he just jumped into a dense forest with withered branches and bushes. I managed to look in the direction of my dad in the hope that he would save me from the maddened horse. But dad stood and quietly panicked, because if he intervened, he would only make things worse,”she recalls.

Katya then scratched her face, her pink baseball cap fell off, her nose bleed. But she took the bridle tighter and after a while the horse calmed down. The next seven hours of the journey went smoothly.

On the next stretch, a tractor with a cart was already waiting for them, where there were schoolchildren like her - who were going to take the exam. “We also drove for about seven hours. It was very cold and dark, we tried to sleep at least a little, but the carriage skidded to the sides and shook violently because of the terrible road, so we didn't get much sleep,”says Katya.

When she got to the next village, she spent the night, and in the morning she went to take the exam by car: "The shocked teachers wanted to hear my story, and I sat in embarrassment in front of a plate of mashed potatoes with meatballs."

Gasoline once a year and a chance to be eaten

Residents of Russia's northernmost village, Dikson, have to live in the cold for most of the year. Here, even in summer, the average air temperature is +5, 5 ℃ (in winter -48 ℃), in June they still ride snowmobiles there. But this is far from the only problem.

Robert Praszenis / Sputnik

The village is so isolated from the rest of Russia that the chance to order gasoline is given out only once a year, during the navigation period. Then it will be delivered to you by ship. There is no petrol station in the village, the nearest petrol station is about 500 km away. But there is still no way to get there, there are no roads. “Private vehicles are rare here. Mostly people have snowmobiles and motor boats. We order from one to two tons of gasoline for navigation. Enough for a year,”says a resident of the village Alexander Anisimov.

The Internet is also in trouble in Dikson - it is very weak. Nobody even tried to download the video here. It takes one and a half to two hours to upload a few photos.

Siberia. Realities / youtube.com

And the biggest threat in the village is wild animals. The local police are on guard against them, since there is no crime in Dikson. “Both wolves and bears walk here. They can unexpectedly leave the house or from the house,”says Mikhail Degtyarev, a resident. In Dikson, advertisements are posted everywhere warning not to feed the bears and (in case there are volunteers) not to be photographed with them.

Rooftop phone

Kusur is the most remote village in Dagestan. It is located high in the mountains and is connected with the plain by one single road. To get here, you need to drive from Makhachkala (1900 km from Moscow) for about seven hours. Near the village of Mukhakh, on the slope of the Main Caucasian ridge, the road ends - then there is only a dangerous mountain path. After 15 kilometers, she drive to Kusur.

Welcome dagestan

In the summer, they live in seven or eight houses in the village, for the winter those who can try to migrate - only to the neighboring store in the village of Dzhinykh you will have to ski on a frozen mountain river for more than 20 km.

But from the benefits of civilization in the village there is only a payphone. It will not work from him to call - there are no cards for him in the village. But you can take a call. The first one who hears a street payphone ringing, picks up the receiver, and then looks for the one who was called.

True, the residents of Kusur also have mobile phones, but they can only connect to one house, on a hill, and only at the wall that looks towards the tower of the mobile operator.

Here, the phone is fixed to the wall on a homemade metal plate with hooks, in the place where the signal is best picked up, and the number is carefully dialed - without removing the mobile from the mount. During the day, a whole line usually gathers on the bench next to the plate.

Welcome dagestan

Internet in the open field and nomads with quadcopters

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, life in some remote places in Russia began to resemble a game quest. On the one hand, its residents could finally appreciate their own isolation, on the other hand, schoolchildren from these places hated distance learning. If for the majority of the country's inhabitants it meant learning at home with a mug of tea at the computer, then for them it meant looking for extraordinary solutions.

Vadim Braidov / TASS

Schoolchildren from the villages of Prikamye (1200 km from Moscow), for example, have to sit for hours on the roofs of their houses, they only catch communication there. “I climb on the roof to submit my homework and download files. I stand for an hour. But if you interrupt, you have to download everything again,”says Amina Kazarinova.

In Bashkiria, in the village of Kulmetovo, schoolchildren "catch" the Internet on the road in the middle of the fields. For this, according to the locals, you have to come by car. "Four students in the cars do their homework, some on the phone, some on the laptop."

Sergey Rusanov / Sputnik

And at the same time, those who roam the wilderness all their lives - reindeer herders in Yakutia - on the contrary, enjoy new opportunities: now quadrocopters are looking after their reindeer. It is much easier to search for lost deer with it. “We use the quadcopter in places where the forest is thicker.

Deer are afraid of him only when he flies quickly - the sound is irritating for them. It’s okay when it’s on the spot,”says reindeer breeder Sergei Laptander.